Honda to develop Brio-based compact SUV

This is a discussion on Honda to develop Brio-based compact SUV within The Indian Car Scene, part of the BHP India category; The Honda Vezel has been launched 2-3 weeks ago in the US under the HR-V name. It seems like the ...

The Honda Vezel has been launched 2-3 weeks ago in the US under the HR-V name. It seems like the car is already a hit there and is flying off the shelves.
Its price starts from just under $20,000.
Thats about 12.5 lakhs.
Why is Honda India saying that this car will be too expensive for India ? If its production is localised then im sure they can fit it into the 13-18 lakh bracket.
The US version doesnt have all the bells and whistles of the Japanese version and doesnt come with a Hybrid option but it still has a decent kit, 1.8L VTEC engine and the AWD version tops out at around $26000
The Japanse Hybrid AWD Vezel costs around $32000 which is a great price I think for the car.

I dont understand why Honda India is trying to reinvent the wheel and cobble together an SUV on the Brio platform which Im sure will show signs of cost cutting and will probably cost around the same as the HR-V ?

If MSIL can build and successfully sell a hatch (Swift), compact sedan (Dzire), regular sedan (Ciaz), MUV (Ertiga) and compact SUV (YBA) on the same platform (ok, elongated in some of these cases), I don't think it is such a bad idea for Honda to make a compact SUV on the Brio platform - provided they price it accordingly, and not ask for the moon. Hope they seriously upgrade the quality of the interior bits though, from the Brio / Amaze levels.

Yes, I like the Vezel too and they might be able to bring it at 15L. But I don't know how many 15L Petrol A/T only SUVs sell would sell in India (AFAIK there is no Diesel engine in the Vezel as yet - it is just Gasoline and Hybrid power-trains with CVT / AT). And if they do have to re-engineer and fit in a diesel just for India along with Manual Transmission, may be they cannot sell it at 15L.

I am not justifying Honda or a Brio-based C-SUV, but platform sharing is very important for OEMs for scale of economies (parts, development-time and effort, assembly line and process-sharing etc). Of course, in many cases, we, as enthusiasts, end up being short-changed. If this backfires for Honda, well and good, for at least then they will get us a better car in the next generation.

Honda BR-V SUV’s official design sketches released, premieres in August - Gaikindo Indonesian International Auto Show 2015 (which will be held from 20-30 August 2015).
Likely to debut in India at the Auto expo 2016.

Quote:

The Honda BR-V is confirmed to offer seven seats in a 3-row configuration. Power for the SUV will come from a 1.5-liter petrol engine which will provide “sporty performance and great fuel efficiency”, says Honda. This engine will be paired to two “advanced” transmissions.

Come on Honda, dont chicken out and get us the Vezel. India deserves and can accept a quality product priced well. Only the Vezel can be the worthy competitor to the Creta. For heavens, please do not do another Amaze.

BRV's lines, cuts and curves are striking. I wonder if the final production version will end up looking like this. If yes, then in my opinion, going by the looks of it - BRV seems to be the perfect recipe to beat down Creta, Ecosport, Duster, etc. There are few things Honda India needs to work on:

1. Bring the exact version of this sketch.
2. Reduce the NVH levels in Diesel.
3. Don't carry forward the Brio/Amaze dash. Don't even think about it.
4. Should be a comfortable 5 Seater.
5. Launch it within 1st half of 2016.

Going by the reports, Honda is planning to launch BR-V as a 7-seater. So, it is not really only eyeing 5-seater Duster / Terrano / Creta territory but the 7-seater XUV 500 / Aria territory as well. If Honda targets these vehicles, they need to up their game drastically. Brio-like interiors will kill the vehicle before launch. Also, they need to equip it with all features and also need to build it pretty well. The sketches look striking and luckily the Brio-nose is not carried over. I am confident the production version will carry the aggressive lines and kinks as well. Projectors from Mobilio RS will be carried over for sure. But the sketch indicate to the new design philosophy which will make it look like the CR-V.

I hope Honda does not do a Mobilio with respect to the product placement, pricing and feature offering though. Honda aimed big by pricing and marketing it as a product between Ertiga and Innova and loaded it as much or even lesser than Ertiga. With this being touted as a 7-seater, hope Honda givies better space in the third row.

Yesterday during the preview of Jazz, the SA told me that his management is expecting Vezel launch next year. I asked him repeatedly asked him if he was sure if it's Vezel and not something else. He was absolutely confident that it is Vezel.... And that it may be in the range of 15-20L

If Honda can give a 7 seater SUV looking like that, it would take the market by storm. If one looks at the Volvo XC90 SUV, its sleek without having too much of metal. Honda could do something like that going by the sketches above.

Everything else being equal between the BR-V and the Mobilio, just the fact that the SUV / CUV is aimed as an 'Aspirational' buy would mean that Honda would price it 5-10% higher than the equivalent Mobilio.

That would pretty much mean the BR-V would go head to head with the XUV and could even draw a new class of buyer from the City/Ciaz segment, who has overlooked the XUV because of multiple reasons..

Design looks pretty neat on paper. Given Honda's packaging skills, the 3rd row should be a usable space and not just 2 extra token seats. Honda needs to learn from the Mobilio lesson and price it right. A 7-seater compact SUV/crossover would be a game-changer.

The sketch does look neat. Lets wait and watch how the production version looks. With this being developed on the Brio platform I have my own reservations.
On an another aspect and based on the sketches this looks more like a Crossover/CUV and I think it should be called that, a CUV. Without getting into the technicalities I think this in no way can be called a SUV.